Background and secular observances of Jewish holidays

Intended for public school teachers who wish to be more inclusive in their approach to holidays. Just as Christmas and Easter are celebrated at schools without reference to G-d, Jesus, the bible, or church, Jewish holidays can also be celebrated or taught without reference to G-d, the Torah, Tanakh, or synagogue. Note that there is no Jewish (or Muslim, etc.) Christmas, there is no Jewish (or Muslim, etc.) Easter.

Days of Awe (Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur)

      1. Meaning: Also called the High Holy Days.

        1. DoA: Days of Penitence

        2. RH: The New Year, The Jewish New Year, literally ‘Head of the Year’

        3. YK: Day of Atonement

      2. Time of year: September/October

      3. Symbols: apples, honey/honee (or date honey), pomegranates, round sweet raisin challah, shofar (hollowed out ram’s horn)

      4. Themes: introspection, self-examination, self-improvement, apologies, forgiveness, self-forgiveness, renewal, reflection, new beginnings, change, repairing the world, charity, social action, reaffirming values, learning from mistakes, goal setting, remembrance, honoring ancestors

      5. Greetings:

        1. RH: “Shana Tova” (good year), “Shana Tova u’Metuka” (have a good and sweet year), “Have a Sweet New Year,” “Happy New Year,” “Chag Sameach,” “L’shana tova tikateivu” (may you be written for a good year), "Happy Holiday," "Have a good holiday"

        2. YK: "Have a meaningful day," “Have an easy/meaningful fast,” “Chatima Tova,” “G’mar Chatima Tova,” “May you be inscribed in the Book of Life”

      1. Activities:

        1. Make New Year’s resolutions (works well for the start of the academic year)

        2. Learn how to make a proper 5-part apology

          1. I am sorry.

          2. I know I hurt you by doing x, y, z.

          3. I do not want to hurt you.

          4. Here is what I will do differently next time: a, b, c.

          5. Is there anything else I can do to make this better?

        3. Eat round challah/apples dipped in honey/honee, pomegranates

        4. Eat punny foods (e.g. peas: peace)

        5. Eat 'new' fruits (fruits you don't normally eat, like starfruit or rarer tropical fruits)

        6. Listen to Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Op.47.

        7. Braid and bake a round challah

        8. Make apple/pomegranate-themed crafts

        9. Listen to the shofar

        10. Make holiday cards

      1. Books appropriate for public schools:

      1. Practices:

        1. Month leading up to RH: the shofar, a hollowed-out ram’s horn, is blown daily (like a trumpet). This is the main holiday card sending period. The ceremony of Tashlich involves symbolically casting off one’s shame and sins by throwing bird seed (formerly bread crumbs) into a moving body of water, enabling us to “cast off behaviors [we] are not proud of and vow to be better people in the year to come.”

        2. DoA: During this time people reflect on things we should have done better during the year, ways we have inadvertently hurt others, and ways we can improve the world. We seek out people we have hurt and apologize to them. Only other humans can forgive us in the time leading up to YK.

        3. RH:

          1. Religious: Those who are observant adhere to the prohibition on work for the two days of Rosh Hashanah and typically spend substantial time in the synagogue.

          2. Secular: On RH itself the shofar is blown in four specific patterns.

          3. Food: We celebrate with festive meals, and eat sweet foods (for a sweet new year), foods that are round (for a complete new year), and foods that contain lots of pieces (like black-eyed peas, beans, or pomegranates, for a full new year). There are also foods that are punny in Hebrew: beet, leeks, spinach, carrots, gourds, green beans, and dates. (English examples of punny foods: raisins on celery so that we may have a raise in salary, peas because we hope for peace.) We also eat 'new' fruits, those that are rare or not normally a part of our diet.

        4. YK: Yom Kippur is a solemn day.

          1. Religious: Those who are observant adhere to the prohibition on work for Yom Kippur and typically spend the entire day in the synagogue, listing all the ways we might have wronged and praying for forgiveness (note that for offenses against other humans only those humans can forgive us).

          2. Secular: Memorial services are held on YK. Many people, observant or not, fast on Yom Kippur. The fast is often broken with a light meal, typically bagels in American Ashkenazi (Eastern European) culture and much more varied in other traditions, an hour past sundown.

Sukkot (and Shemini Atzeret & Simchat Torah)

      1. Meaning:

        1. Sukkot: plural of ‘sukkah’ (‘booth’/’hut’), “Booths”, “The Festival of Booths,” “Feast of Tabernacles,” harvest festival.

        2. Shemini Atzeret: “Gather on the 8th”

        3. Simchat Torah: “Rejoicing the Torah,” “The Joy of the Torah”

      2. Time of year: September/October

      3. Symbols: “the Four Species”: a lulav (bound palm frond, willow, and myrtle branches) and etrog (citron), sukkah (booth)

      4. Themes: Welcoming, inclusion, hosting guests, community, interdependence, learning, gratitude, celebrating the harvest, agriculture, environmentalism, “the transitory nature of human existence and the fleetingness of human experience”

      5. Greetings: “Happy Sukkot,” “Chag Sameach,” “Moadim l’simcha” (‘festivals for joy’)

      6. Activities:

        1. Make decorations for the sukkah (e.g. lanterns, colorful paper chains, harvest-themed ornaments, garlands)

        2. Build and decorate a sukkah (full scale, toy/diorama, or gingerbread)

        3. Eat a picnic in a sukkah

      1. Books appropriate for public schools:

        1. The Best Sukkot Pumpkin Ever (on making sure others have enough food, and on composting)

        2. The Vanishing Gourds: A Sukkot Mystery (on gratitude, welcoming guests, and taking care of animals; with discussion questions: Why do you think Sara loves Sukkot? Have you had dreams that helped you think about things in a new way? Why does Sara make sure the squirrels don’t go hungry?)

        3. The Elephant in the Sukkah (on the importance of being inclusive and welcoming; with discussion questions: What makes a good host?)

      1. Practices: The holiday is 8 days long (9 in the diaspora). Shemini Atzeret is on the 8th day, Simchat Torah is on the last day.

        1. Between Yom Kippur and Sukkot people may build their own sukkahs. The sukkah is a temporary hut with a green roof of leaves that provides a bit of shade during the day but allows views of the stars at night.

        2. Sukkot: We celebrate with festive meals.

          1. Religious: The first two days and the last two days are especially special, and those who are observant adhere to the prohibition on work for those days.

          2. Secular: People eat and may sleep in the sukkah (booth). The lulav and etrog are shaken together in a ritual to remind us of the importance of including everyone in our community: the date palm has fruit but no scent, the citron has fruit and scent, the myrtle has scent but no fruit, and the willow has neither. Scent and fruit can be thought of as ‘learning’ & ‘observance’ or other dichotomous pairs, such that people are included in the community whether or not they learn and whether or not they observe.

          3. Food: People typically eat festive foods, especially of the 'Seven Species': dates, figs, barley, wheat, grapes, olives, pomegranates.

        3. Simchat Torah:

          1. Religious: The last passage of the Torah is read, the two scrolls are unwound and held so around the sanctuary, and then the torah is rewound and the first passage of the Torah is read.

          2. Secular: People joyously sing and dance in the synagogue and in the streets. People reaffirm their commitment to learning.

      1. Origins: In the early days of agriculture the farmers would set up temporary huts on their fields during the harvest so they would not have to trek back and forth. These huts are the basis for the sukkot (plural of ‘sukkah’).

      2. History:

        1. Some historians believe that sukkot was the basis for the American Thanksgiving.

        2. The holiday imbued with a religious meaning as well: the huts were likened to those in which the Jews lived for forty years after the Exodus before getting to the Land of Israel.

        3. It is the basis for Chanukkah being 8 days long-- during the oppression of the Seleucid Empire the Jews were persecuted and not allowed to practice their religion, so could not observe Sukkot. After defeating the Empire they could finally celebrate their holidays.

General Notes

      1. Motivation:

      2. “The intensity of the Christmas curriculum in non-religiously affiliated schools and centers isolates children of minority faiths, while contributing to the development of ethnocentricism in majority children… Aware of the distinctiveness of children from diverse religious backgrounds, many teachers feel they have eliminated the problem by observing a minority holiday that falls during the same time of year. Thus, teachers frequently pay attention to the Jewish holiday of Chanukah which is celebrated in December. But there are two reasons why this practice intensifies rather than ameliorates the problem. First, the teachers may not have enough information about the holiday to make such observances meaningful… When this is the case, they may ask the minority children for help. Children, especially young ones, may not know what their teachers wish to know; they may feel uncomfortable with being singled out as a source when their teachers are so knowledgeable about the majority holiday (Hollander, Saypol & Eisenberg, 1978). Second, and more important, is the distorted equation of the two religious holidays, merely because they fall in the same month. Chanukah does not have the same significance to Judaism that Christmas has to Christianity. More important Jewish holidays are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which are observed in the fall, and Passover, which is observed in the springtime. Teachers do not display multicultural sensitivity when they treat Chanukah as the most important Jewish Holiday of the year, while ignoring more important Jewish holidays that do not fall in December. These teachers abet the false notion [that] Chanukah is the “Jewish Christmas.””[1]

      3. “Do not focus on holidays solely in December. When inquiry is restricted in this way, it’s often done to disguise that Christian Christmas is being favored. It also can leave students with false impressions about the importance of holidays in other faith traditions...”[2]

      4. “Becom[e] aware of important celebrations in other religions represented by children in the school or center and recogniz[e] these at their appropriate times of year. If minority festivals are to be celebrated, they need to be understood on their own terms and not fitted into the curriculum merely to justify the intensive Christmas curriculum in December.”[1]

      5. “Although it can be fun to reenact particular cultural traditions related to holiday observances… such activities must serve an academic purpose. And, in order to foster religious tolerance and competence, students need to understand the religious purpose behind the practices.”[2]

      6. Legal: “teachers can teach about religion as long as (a) the content is tied to academic objectives and (b) teachers do not attempt to indoctrinate students to a certain religious belief or nonbelief.” [3]

      7. Judaism is a religion, but it is also a tribe, and a cultural heritage.

        1. Many people who practice Judaism are actually atheist or agnostic.

        2. Faith is not a membership requirement even for the religious component.

      8. Times of the day: Jewish days start at sunset, not at midnight. Holiday observance therefore starts the evening before.

      9. Times of the month: The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar, so holidays move around relative to the solar Gregorian calendar each year.

      10. Definitions:

        1. Mitzvah: a good deed, or positive commandment

        2. Chag Sameach: happy holiday: appropriate for any holiday except fast days (e.g. Yom Kippur)

        3. Challah: a rich braided ceremonial bread

      1. Holiday colors: there are no traditional or official ‘holiday colors’ for Jewish holidays. Blue and white are Israel’s colors. Blue and yellow are the Nazi’s Holocaust badges’ colors.